BBA #5

1. How might the findings/arguments of the article or video challenge common assumptions about weight, health, moral responsibility, or merit?

Fat people are lazy- fat phobia leads to social isolation. 

Majority of people tried to lose weight 4 or more times, still majority held anti-fat bias

Being fat did not make people less anti-fat

2. What are the implications of weight bias for psychological well‐being, social inclusion, or institutional policy (e.g., in education, healthcare, workplaces)?

Continual weight bias leads to lower achievement for higher weight people. Gender specificty of WRS leads to interesectionality with sexism. 

3. Considering the material, propose one concrete strategy (individual, group,

or institutional) for reducing weight‐based stigma in a classroom, campus, or professional setting.

An intervention gained at prompting self-insight, breaking the barrier between self-percetion and expressed attitudes.

Spreading the data that weight stigma leads to lack of exercise and unhealthy eating

Weight bias among students and employees in university settings: an exploratory study

  • Omnipresent due to societal acceptance

  • Consequences: exercise avoidance, internalized weight stigma, body dissatisfaction, negative affect, exclusion, unhealthy eating patterns, and binge drinking

  • 64% of students experiencing weight-based bias met the criteria for a mental health disorder

  • Limited research on what demographics most hold weight stigma

  • Quebec university setting

  • Relationship between weight bias and psychological health, gender, and experience of weight bias

  • Methods

    • Answered basic demographic questions

    • Provided height and weight and experiences around weight/weight loss

    • Used the fat phobia scale 

    • 70-30 student to faculty split

  • Results

    • ½ of participants felt embarrassed about their weight

    • 44.7% of Ss stated they experienced weight stigma

    • ½ held prejudice against higher weight people, only 36.6% did not

    • 45% said they did not witness weight based stigma in the university setting

    • 47.7% said the university should start a anti-weight bias campaign

    • Women more likely to experience weight related stigma

    • Small effect size strong association between experiencing WRS and negative MH outcomes

    • Student/employee status was not relevant

    • No association between weight self-perception and weight prejudice

    • Average FPS had moderate prejudicial beliefs

      • Men scored higher

    • BMI and embarrassment about weight and BMI and experiencing WRS were correlated

    • Lower level of WRS in university over healthcare or general public setting

  • Subjects tended to be post-graduates, aligns with previous finding that WRS decreases w/ higher education

  • No association between experiencing stigma and not holding prejudice

  • Students had higher FPS scores

  • Limitations: self-selection, lack of racial and gender diversity, social desirability bias, self-repert for MH diagnosises